The instant invention relates generally to the field of electronic calculator, and, more specifically to those computational devices that provide both decimal and fractional computation.
At the present state of the art calculators perform mainly decimal computations including addition, subtraction, multiplication and division Mass production calculators include functions such as percentage and square roots as well as various memory and storage features Scientific calculators provide advanced mathematical functions such as exponentials, integral calculus, and statistics, and can even graph mathematical functions. Special purpose calculator provide analysis capabilities for almost every discipline including engineering, accounting, and computer programming.
In the United States the effort to move from English Units (pounds, feet, and seconds) to metric (kilograms, meters, and seconds) has largely failed due to the cost of converting both measuring instruments and "standard size" objects including milled lumber, hardware of various types, tire sizes, etc. The English system is therefore an essential part of commerce and product dimensions will continue to be measured in fractional parts of inches and feet.
At present there are no calculators that directly work in fractional dimensions while also providing scaling functions. The user is forced to convert back and forth between fractions and decimals, truncating the results where necessary. This is particularly difficult in those applications where measurements need to be scaled. For example, a framer working from architectural drawings will need to scale the dimensions from the architectural drawings prior to performing calculations. Errors made in these conversions can be time consuming, expensive, and can even jeopardize public health and safety.